【網店營運攻略】幾時先係使用第三方網店物流服務嘅適合時機？
When the business scale for e-commerce is expanding, the skyrocketing demands and orders form a driving force for e-commerce owners to review the allocation of their resources regularly. Are your current resources able to support your future business growth? If you find it difficult then what is the right time for you to outsource your warehouse and logistics to a 3PL provider? Let’s check out the following 6 questions.
1) Insufficient human resources
Seasonal changes in demand always put pressure on e-commerce owners to handle the extra orders, such as the increasing workload for pick and pack, logistics, and customer-related services. Even if you can hire seasonal staff to handle all these tasks, the cost and expenses are very high, reducing the sales margin.
- If insufficient human resources become a problem that you often encounter, it might be a good idea to outsource your warehouse and logistics.
2) Imbalanced resources allocation
Many e-commerce owners invest a lot of time and effort into operation and logistics, for instance, deciding which order to handle first and the courier arrangement. Instead, owners should prioritize the time on business development and marketing strategies rather than on operational level.
- If the operational level is always prioritized over the long-term development actions, it is time to address the resources allocation problem.
3) Efficiency drops
Peak season with high demand is always a good stress test for online shop operations. With the increasing number of orders, can your shop still be able to achieve the guaranteed delivery time? Can the order be processed within reasonable time?
- If the operational efficiency of your online store is declining with the increasing demands, it indicates clearly that your future business growth would become a pressure on your daily operations.
4) Declining cost-effectiveness
Warehouse and logistics account for a large portion of the cost of an e-commerce operation. Small and medium-sized companies usually pay more than large-scale companies for their smaller volumes.
- If you find the expenses on warehouse and logistics become the pain point on your business, outsourcing it to a 3PL provider might be a better option to increase the cost-effectiveness.
5) Insufficient hardware support
When your online store grows to a certain level, it will inevitably increase the demand and space for warehouse and logistics. Would you rather rent a larger warehouse or build a new warehouse?
- If your warehouse space and setup are insufficient to support your future business growth, a better alternative might be to outsource it rather than binding a fixed cost on it.
6) Customer satisfaction discrepancy
With the increasing demand, errors in handling orders or shipment delays might be inevitable. The discrepancy in customer expectations might then negatively impact your company’s reputation and customer satisfaction.
- If you find there are increasing negative customer reviews and ratings on your business, it would be an obvious sign that you might need to seek external assistance to improve the situation.
If you find these 6 points frustrating, then now is the right time for you to outsource your warehouse and logistics to a 3PL provider. Contact us now to check out how Kube can ease your burden!
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